FENNVILLE -- Crystal Blink is afraid her 2-year-old daughter, Lily, is in danger from water being pumped from contaminated wells.

"She has upper respiratory problems and has been in and out of hospitals, and now I find the house we're renting is in the area with contaminated water, and I fear for her," Blink said Tuesday. She lives on 55th Street in an area where high levels of arsenic and heavy metals have been found.

Renters such as Blink would be covered in any legal action against the food company over the groundwater pollution, said attorney Robin Green, of the New York law firm of Weitz & Luzenberg PC. The firm plans to represent Fennville residents with water contamination problems.

Although Brockovich could not attend a gathering Tuesday to discuss the issues, residents are moving forward in their quest for answers about a nearby Birds Eye Foods processing plant, which is accused of spraying wastewater from its fruit-processing operation that has led to soil contamination around area wells.

The state Department of Environmental Quality maintains the company's spraying of fields with sugar water and salt-laden organic matter helps strips the soil of oxygen, releasing metal oxides and other materials into the groundwater.